I am attempting to set up a local Ubuntu repository following this, but I need some help. To test if I did everything correctly, I tried sudo apt-get install chrome or sudo apt-get install nodejs but I get Unable to locate package x. Since I followed the official documentation linked above precisely, I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

Why do people suggest using apt-mirror or apt-catcher? Are they necessary?

Do I have to unzip Packages.bz2 or Packages.gz? Is it right that I just leave them as they are?

Am I missing an important step?

I haven't figured out a solution after doing some research. Any help would be appreciated.

1 Answer
1

First question, you don't have to use apt-mirror its just for getting .deb files into your local repo. You can get the .deb by other means:

you can install the application you need on online system with internet connection then you can cop the .deb files from /var/cache/apt/archives to your local repo.

If you don't want to install you can just download the .deb of needed package by sudo apt-get dowload package-name then you can find the .deb in your home so you can move to your local repo.

Second question, you don't have to unzip the Packages.gz. Its a file containing archive of packages founded in your local repo. you have just to keep it there and don't mess with.

Third question, just move on with the link you provide and you ara fine. If you don't get the needed just check this How to make my own local repository?. you can find many methods to make a local repo either with web server(apache2) or just a local directory.